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   Stick

   /stik/

   

   noun

   • 1. a thin piece of wood that has fallen or been cut from a tree. Similar piece of woodtwigsmall branchcanepolebeanpolepoststakeuprightrod
   • ▪ a long piece of wood used for support in walking or as a weapon with which to hit someone or something. Similar walking stickcanestaffmalaccaalpenstockblackthornashplantrattanthumb stickcrookcrutchwaddyclubcudgelbludgeonshillelaghtruncheonbatoncanebirchswitchrodlathidandakierieknobkerrieinformal:cosh
   • ▪ (in hockey, polo, and other games) a long implement, typically made of wood, with a head or blade of varying form that is used to hit or direct the ball or puck.
   • ▪ (in field hockey) the foul play of raising the stick above the shoulder.
   • ▪ a short piece of wood used to impale food: "Popsicle sticks"
   • ▪ goalposts. informal
   • ▪ a mast or spar. archaic
   • ▪ a piece of basic furniture: "every stick of furniture just vanished"
   • 2. a long, thin piece of something: "a stick of dynamite"
   • ▪ (in extended and metaphorical use) a very thin person or limb: "the girl was a stick"
   • ▪ a conductor's baton.
   • ▪ a gear or control lever.
   • ▪ a quarter-pound rectangular block of butter or margarine. US
   • ▪ a number of bombs or paratroopers dropped rapidly from an aircraft: "the sticks of bombs rained down"
   • ▪ a small group of soldiers assigned to a particular duty: "a stick of heavily armed guards"
   • ▪ a marijuana cigarette. informal
   • 3. a threat of punishment or unwelcome measures (often contrasted with the offer of reward as a means of persuasion): "training that relies more on the carrot than on the stick"
   • 4. severe criticism or treatment: informal British "I took a lot of stick from the press" Similar criticismflakcensurereproachreproofcondemnationcastigationchastisementblameabusepunishmentinformal:a bashinga roastinga caningan earfula bawling-outverbala rollickinga wigginga rocketa rowvulgar slang:a bollockingrare:animadversionOpposite praisecommendation
   • 5. rural areas far from cities: informal, derogatory "a small, dusty town out in the sticks"
   • 6. a person of a specified kind: informal, dated "Janet's not such a bad old stick sometimes"

   Word Origin Old Englishsticca ‘peg, stick, spoon’, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch stek ‘cutting from a plant’ and German Stecken ‘staff, stick’.

   Derivatives

   • 1. sticklike adjective

   Scrabble Points: 11

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